A/N: Okay, this one was requested by me, myself, and I. I just really wanted to write something. I had no pending prompt request or ideas of my own at the moment, so I thought I'd turn to my handy-dandy Tumblr Prompts list for inspiration and this one just kinda jumped out at me. I hope y'all (yes, I'm from Kentucky) like it. Basically, its just a cute, fun, little reveal fic (cause those have been and always will be my favorite.)
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Prompt #17: "Looks like we'll be trapped for a while..."
Characters: Barry Allen/The Flash & Iris West from The Flash.
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"You know, its your fault we're in this mess." The Flash said.
"My fault?" Iris asked incredulously, "How in the hell is it my fault?"
The pair was currently standing in a small storage unit, the door locked from the outside. Barry had come to investigate a lead on the case he had been working on with S.T.A.R. Labs and the CCPD. Leonard Snart had been spotted at several robberies in Central City recently, one of which had landed three cops in the ER with sever frost burns—Officer Berkshire even losing one of his leg as a result. Iris had reposted an anonymous tip that she had gotten onto her blog for him to see, saying that Snart had been spotted not far from the abandoned warehouse where he now stood, and so Barry—as The Flash—sped off to catch the criminal and bring him in. Unfortunately, being the excellent and inquisitive journalist that Iris was, she too had come to the warehouse to scope out her next story. And that was when everything went wrong.
"You distracted me. That's how." He replied, his voice still disguised.
"I distracted you?"
He had been in the middle of fighting with Captain Cold, dodging his cold gun with expert skill, and was just about to grab him and bring him to the police station when the large iron door of the warehouse screeched on its hinges as it opened. The bright like from outside came flooding into the building causing both criminal and hero to look towards the entrance. As the door slammed shut with a loud clank and the blinding light faded the familiar figure of Iris West appeared. Snart saw her to, and Barry knew by the evil grin that formed on his face what he was planning. He had yelled for her to run, for her to get out. Sadly, the cold gun had reacted faster. Iris had instantly spun around to leave but as she did the door froze over in a heavy layer of ice. It took the journalist only a moment to realize what had just happened and she once again spun around and began searching for another exit. She spotted the glowing sign on the opposite side of the warehouse and made to run for it at the same time The Flash charged at the cold gun wielding villain.
"Yes!" He half shouted back a response. "Once you walked in here, all I could thinking about was getting you back out again safely as soon as I could. I couldn't focus on Snart, or what he was doing to me. All of my focus was on you Iris. On protecting you."
His companion sighed in frustration and defeat, biting at her lower lip before responding. "Alright, I'll admit it. Maybe barging in here like that without bothering to check my surroundings first wasn't the smartest thing that I could have done."
"You think?" The Flash asked her, giving a small breathy laugh.
"Oh shut up." The girl laughed, teasing her rooftop buddy, "Can't you contact somebody on your coms system to come get us out of here or something?"
"He busted my coms system, remember?"
"Oh yea." She pouted as she remembered.
He had succeeded in knocking Snart to the ground, the gun falling to the ground at his side. He gave a quick glance to check on Iris and see how far she had managed to get—she was nearing the center of the room and was not too far away from them—with the intention rushing to her and carrying her the remaining distance. Before he was able to stand however, the criminal laying beside him on the ground had crawled to his knees while the speedsters attention was on his best friend and he took full advantage of his distraction. With in a matter of seconds Snart managed slam the side of the heroes head hard into the cold cement floor, causing his coms to break and emanate high pitched feed back into his ear. The pain from the impacted and sound bought the thief the last seconds of time he needed to reach his gun and fire it. Fortunately, in Snart's rush to hit his target before his opponent recovered he had miss judged his aim narrowly missing Iris and hitting the floor in front of her. Not having time to stop before her feet came into contact with the icy patch she lost her footing and slid.
The feed back being projected into his ears came to an end and Barry leapt up to catch her before she could land and get injured. His hope had been to speed her out once he caught her, but with his head still pounding he felt off balance and he knew that he had a concussion. With his equilibrium being off he managed to catch her before stumbling and falling into the storage unit directly behind them. His body had acted as a cushion for Iris in the landing which he was grateful for because he would heal from any injuries faster than her, but the impact had knocked the wind out of him. In the time it took for the journalist to snap out of her daze and stand, and his breath to return to his lungs and his vision to clear, Snart had closed the small distance between them and shut lock the storage door with a loud clank.
As he left Captain Cold had announced, gleefully, that he might be able to get some work done in peace with The Flash locked away in storage—he had found his pun to be particularly amusing. The first thing Iris had done was reach for her cell phone in her purse as Barry struggled to his feet—he was wobbly and needed the wall for support, but at least he could stand. Much to the journalist dismay—but not to Barry's surprise—her cell didn't have any service in the concrete walls of the warehouse. And so, there they stood, trapped and alone, in a small dark metal storage unit.
"I don't suppose you've got super strength too, do you?" Iris offered him as a joke. He grinned at her. It was dark in here, so he didn't have to worry about her seeing his face.
"Only if I have the room to run fast enough."
"Like that time with Tony Woodward?"
"Yea," he grinned, "Exactly like that time with Tony Woodward."
Sighing, The Flash allowed himself to slide down the wall into a sitting position. His head was pounding and he felt as if the storage unit was spinning in circles. Standing was no longer an option for him. "Looks like we'll be trapped for a while." He said. "We might as well make our selves comfortable."
Iris took the few steps forward and took a seat directly in front of him. "How's your head?"
"Concussed." He told her. "It'll heal."
The girl in front of him looked down at her phone and a moment later her face came into view as her flashlight came on. Instantly he blurred his face to hide his features that he knew she would recognize the minute he dropped his disguise.
"There." She announced, "Now we can see each other. And my battery is at a hundred percent, so it shouldn't die for a while."
Her companion only nodded.
"Look, I know you've got your whole secret identity thing to keep up, and I get that. But if we're going to be stuck in here for a while we might as well talk and get to know each other better right? All off the record, of course." Iris said hurriedly.
"Uh, yea. Sure. Sounds good." He winced at a sudden sharp stab of pain in his head, and even through his blurred features Iris noticed it.
"Hey, are you sure your okay?" She was looking at him in concern.
"Yea, I'm fine. I heal fast."
"But as of right now, you're in pain, aren't you?"
The Flash winced again, "Maybe just a little."
"I can't help with the concussion, but I'm pretty sure I have some IB Profane in my bag if you wanted to try that for the pain." The girl trailed off as she reached into her bag looking for said pain medication.
"Uh, thanks for the offer, but it doesn't really work on me anymore."
Iris knit her brows together looking at him, a question written on her face. "Why—" she began.
"My metabolism runs faster." He explained, "It would burn off anything you gave me."
"Oh. That, sort of makes sense, I guess. And I am suddenly surprised that I understand that." She laughed, "I guess some of Barry's science-y ramblings are actually starting to rub off on me."
He laughed too. "It would appear so."
She smiled at him for a moment before her expression changed to an expression that Barry knew all too well. An expression that meant she had just gotten what she deemed to be a fantastic idea. An idea that he, of course, would agree to—and he would more than likely end up regret agreeing to later on.
"Flash," she announced excitedly, "I just got a great idea to help us get to know each other better and pass the time!"
"And what might this great idea be?" He asked her. He knew this was going to end badly for him. Why was it always so hard for Barry to tell her "no" when she came up with these crazy ideas?
"I think, you and I, should play 20 Questions. Its this game that Barry and I use to play all the time when we were kids where you each take turns asking each other 20 different questions—hence the name. You have to honestly answer what ever the person ask you. And no repeats."
"You do know I probably can't answer every question right? Especially not honestly. That whole, secret identity thing, remember?" He smirked at her. Of course he didn't need the games instructions, he remembered playing that game with her when they were kids as if it was just yesterday.
"We might be able to make an exception in your case." She said returning his smile. "So, does that mean you'll play?"
He was definitely going to regret this later. "Yea, okay. I'll play. You go first." The Flash told her with a laugh.
"Okay." Iris said excitedly, moving so that she was sitting in a more comfortable position. "First question: do you have a girlfriend?"
"No." He answered honestly. "No, I do not."
"But, you have had girlfriends before, right?"
"A couple, yea. And that was two questions Iris. You cheated!" The speedster laughed.
"Fine! You can ask me two questions to make up for it then." She laughed too.
"Okay, I will." He paused, thinking for a moment before coming up with a question. "If you could go anywhere in the world, and money wasn't a problem, where would you go."
"Italy, obviously. Eat all the Italian food that I want, drink all of the European coffee that I can, go to a Vineyard and taste some wine. All the works."
"Who would you take with you?"
"Barry." She said without hesitation. "If you would have asked me last week I'd have said my boyfriend but, uh, Eddie's not really in the picture anymore."
"Iris, I'm so sorry. I didn't—"
"Oh no. You are not going to pull a Barry on me and start apologizing for this. It's not your fault. And I'm fine. Really. We just, didn't work I guess. It was actually a pretty mutual decision."
Barry nodded. He hadn't known they had broken up, and he couldn't understand why she hadn't told him yet. He wanted to ask why they had decided to call it quits, but he knew that asking as The Flash wouldn't be the best idea. He also knew that he couldn't ask as Barry without making her suspicious. The speedster would just have to wait and trust that she would talk to him when she was ready.
"So..."
"Oh! Right! My turn." She laughed. "Uh, well, I think I already know your favorite color—red, obviously—so let's go with, favorite food?"
"Easy." He told her, "Pizza. With pepperoni, olives, and jalapeño peppers."
"I cannot stand jalapeño peppers!" The girl laughed, crinkling up her nose up in disgust.
"Too hot for you I take it?" He laughed. She looked adorable when she crinkled her nose up like that. "And that doesn't count as a question, by the way." He hurriedly added.
"Way too hot." She agreed laughing. "Barry can eat them like crazy though. Its actually pretty impressive to see." She paused before adding, "And dully noted."
"Yea, well I think that my last girl friend could put even Barry to shame. I mean seriously. Okay, you know Heat Wave, right? Also, not an actual question."
"He's Snart's friend, right?"
"Right. Well I'm pretty sure my last girlfriend could just eat the fire from his gun if she wanted to and be completely unfazed by it." He informed her.
"Okay, well I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure that fire-heat and spicy food-heat are two very different things." Iris laughed.
"Pretty sure your right. But you get my point." The speedster laughed.
"I do. And I also believe that it is your turn."
"Hmm." He said in thought. "Okay. Since you use to work at Jitters, how much coffee would you say you drink in a day."
Of course Barry knew the answer to that, or at least he knew it would be a large number. Iris had always had an addiction to caffeine. She had taken an instant liking to coffee, and before long she was guzzling it down an entire pot at a time by herself.
"I don't really know." She said after a moment of contemplating. "A lot, I guess? I've never really counted. At least one whole pot, sometimes more if I'm up late for something."
He laughed nodding. He was right, it was a lot of coffee. "You're next."
"Um, what is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done."
"I'm not entirely sure that I wanna tell you that." He answered laughing. His most embarrassing moment had actually involved Iris. It was when he had told her he loved her, poured his heart out to her, and she had just sat there staring at him. He couldn't answer without her figuring out who he really was.
"Okay, fine. We'll come back to that one. Favorite movie?"
"Oh, I'm a sucker for a good SiFi movie. I'm a total nerd that way." The Flash answered.
"But if you had to pick one of them." Iris prodded.
He began absentmindedly rubbing the back of his neck in though, "Uh, I don't know. The Back to the Future movies were awesome, Alien was pretty great." He said dropping his hand. "The first one was the best though. And Godzilla was kinda cool, in a totally cheesy sort of way, I guess. And—"
"Wow. You really can't pick just one, can you?" She teased, laughing.
"No." He laugh, "I guess I can't."
"Wow." She repeated.
"Shut up." He teased with a laugh. "Uh, favorite past memory?"
This one was something that he was genuinely curious about since it was an answer he didn't know. And he knew almost everything about Iris. Her smile widened and her entire face brightened as she seemed to remember her favorite past memory.
"The day I met Barry Allen." She said, almost instantly. "I mean, he's always just had this—this light is the only way I can really think to describe it." Iris explained, talking with her hands as she had always done when she felt passionately about something.
"There was just always something sort of magical about him, in a way." She continued. "Like, he lost so much as a kid and saw so much pain, but he never let it dim his light—which always amazed me. And not only that, but all of my favorite memories seem to involve him. My first concert, my first 'R' rated movie, family vacations."
"That time I got drunk for the first time at a party when I was 17. He slept in my room that night so he'd be there to hold my hair back and help me every time I got sick. I woke up to find IB Profane and a glass of water on my night stand the next morning, and a very worried and exhausted Barry sitting at the foot of my bed. He even helped me hide the hangover from my dad" she laughed at the memory. "I wouldn't trade those memories, or him, for anything in the world."
Barry sat across from her biting hard on his lip and trying very hard not to cry. He hadn't been expecting that to be her answer, but it meant the world to him to know that it was.
"I think anybody who has ever walked out of your life is missing out on knowing probably the most amazing person I've ever met in my life." He said at last.
Iris sat there for a while in silence, just smiling at her red-clad hero, and thinking how easy it was for her to talk to him. After a moment or two she asked her next question. "Worst habit?"
"I've been told that I have a habit of being perpetually late for everything."
"Your joking, right?" The journalist laughed.
The Flash shook his head rapidly side to side. "Nope. Sadly I'm not."
"You're faster than a speeding bullet!" She laughed in disbelief, "How can you possibly be perpetually late for everything?"
"Uh, I'll let you know when I figure that one out." He laughed. "As cliché as it might be, if you could have dinner with anybody from history, who would you chose?"
"You're right," the girl said with a laugh. "That is incredibly cliché. But, I think I'm going to have to go with Benjamin Franklin."
"And you said that my question was cliché?"
"Hey, he started The Pennsylvania Gazette, a news paper that just so happened to play a huge part in the American Revolution. Which lead to us journalist having Freedom of Press."
"Okay, I concede. Your reasons for choosing him aren't cliché."
"Thank you, that's all that I ask." She said proudly. "What's your most embarrassing moment?"
"You said no question repeats."
"Its not a repeat if you never answered the question."
"What if I can't answer that question honestly?" He asked. "You said you'd make an exception for me on that rule, remember?"
"I do remember. Except I don't think that this is a secret identity excuse, so much as it is you not wanting to tell me. So no pass."
"I swear to you Iris, this is not me wanting to get out of telling you my most embarrassing moment."
"Flash, how could your most embarrassing moment have anything to do with your secret identity?" She said, trying to understand his sudden paranoia. "I mean, the only way that it could tell me anything about who you were would be if it somehow involved—" she broke off mid sentence, seemingly realizing something, before finishing her sentence in a whisper. "If it somehow involved me."
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A/N: This was originally meant to be a One-Shot, but as I was typing I realized that I had reached 5k+ words and still was not finished yet. So I broke up what I already had and I'm going to be making this a Two-Shot now. I hope you guys enjoy this. I know that its cheesy, but hopefully its cute and you guys like it. I've also received a prompt request for Stiles and Lydia from Teen Wolf, so if you guys like the show and ship Stydia, be on the look out for that. I'm going to try to get that up soon. :)
